Modou Dieng Yacine Senegal, b. 1970

Modou Dieng Yacine was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal, a French colonial establishment built in the 17th century. Dieng opens the dialogue between Africa and the West, the cultures and values that unite us, as Senegalese, but above all as African. Modou  is a graduate of the School of Fine Arts of Dakar, Senegal, and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute. During his artistic career, Dieng was also a professor and then director of the Department of Arts and Painting for 10 years at the Pacific Northwestern College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He is the co-founder of the “Worksound” space in Portland, a collaborative space between American West Coast artists and international artists. Dieng exhibits his works in art galleries based in North America (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles), and Latin America (Colombia, Mexico). His works are also present in the collections of the Studio Museum in New York, at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, and the Kranzberg Arts Foundation in St Louis, Missouri. Dieng now lives in Chicago, Illinois, a city he considers a new renaissance center, where he continues to focus on the role of curator and studio practice. He is currently the main curator of Blackpuffin and exhibits his own works internationally.